Please credit "J.K. Yamamoto, Hokubei Mainichi." Inouye & Kato. Carnelian room again. Left is U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye. the guy in the near background to viewer's right of Inouye is Hideya Taida, vice president of Japan Foundation (quoted in story). Gray-haired guy to Taida's left is Ambassador Kato. please crop out guy on far right. J.K. Yamamoto Hokubei Mainichi

Photo: J.K. Yamamoto

Please credit "J.K. Yamamoto, Hokubei Mainichi." Inouye & Kato....

SAN FRANCISCO / Japanese Americans, Japanese reconnect / Program in place to restore ties lost in World War II

At a gathering called a honeymoon by one delegate, 40 prominent Japanese Americans and Japanese leaders gave birth to a plan to end their long separation.

Joining the embrace in San Francisco last week were U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii; Japan's ambassador to the United States, Ryozo Kato; and Japanese American leaders from the Bay Area who played a central role in initiating the reconciliation.

Also on hand for the meetings, sharing of wine and a tour of Japantown were seven Japanese consuls general from across the United States and Japanese American community and business leaders from 10 American cities.

A long-standing bridge between Japan and Japanese Americans was blown up by World War II. Under a cloud of suspicion after Pearl Harbor, most Americans of Japanese ancestry were forced into relocation camps.

To demonstrate loyalty to America, many forsook their cultural ties, and two generations grew up severed from their roots.

"Historically, there hasn't been a real close connection with the Japanese Americans and Japan," said San Francisco attorney Kaz Maniwa, who co-chaired the gathering. "People just assumed there is this close connection. Because of the war, there has been a lot of mixed feelings."

Their ordeal was compounded before and after the war by racism.

"Japanese-American nisei (second-generation immigrants) often shielded their children from things that are Japanese, Japanese language particularly, and tried to have them assimilate as much as possible into the mainstream of American society," Maniwa said.

Japanese Consul General for San Francisco, Makoto Yamanaka, who co-chaired the gathering, said the impact was felt on both sides of the Pacific.

"Japanese people do not know much about the history and experience of Japanese Americans," Yamanaka said.

The most visible result of last week's gathering came late Thursday -- a 28-part "action plan." The document, whose genesis was in similar meetings in 2003 and 2004, was the focus of daylong closed sessions among the participants Monday at the Radisson Miyako Hotel in Japantown.

One thrust is "to encourage greater awareness by Japanese Americans about Japan, their roots and the culture, and by people in Japan about the experience of Japanese Americans," said Irene Hirano, the third co-chair of the meeting and president of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

Proposals include "roots tours" to Japan, more student exchanges, and expanding translation of materials about Japanese Americans into Japanese and Japanese materials into English. Also planned are local business networking groups and linking Japanese American Web sites to Japanese consulate homepages.

The initiative has drawn high praise from both sides, with Japanese government spokesman Tomohiko Taniguchi comparing the two-day conference to a honeymoon.

But there was also recognition that full rapprochement doesn't happen overnight.

Maniwa said reforging Japanese Americans' bond with Japan also could help U.S.-Japan relations.

Japanese Americans can find themselves caught between two worlds when, for example, the long shadow of the war takes the form of Chinese American or Korean American groups asking Japanese Americans to join in Asian American solidarity to press for greater war reparations from Japan, Maniwa said.

"We're really in the middle of that," he said, adding that there's been no expectation that Japanese Americans would become advocates for the Japanese government.

Japanese American leaders have been working for at least a decade to improve communication with Japanese leaders, said Matsuda. Their efforts evolved into red-carpet visits to Japan every spring by a "Leadership Delegation" of 10 or 12 sansei and yonsei -- third-generation and fourth-generation Japanese Americans, respectively.

"I think many of them have had little or no interest in Japan and didn't know what part of Japan their ancestors came from," she said. "It becomes a very transformative experience to their own sense of identity, family history and role as Japanese Americans."

One Japanese host, Hideya Taida, vice president of the Japan Foundation, recalled a visiting Japanese American telling him, "I don't know why, but I was so happy. I have never felt I was a Japanese descendant."